One of the greatest things about my job is the incredible people I often get to meet and video tape. We recently had the honor to produce a memorial video for a San Francisco Bay Area icon. But, chances are, even if you live in this area, unless you were active in the African American civil rights movement, or San Francisco politics of the 60s and 70s, you many not have heard of this gentleman. Dr. Daniel A. Collins. A retired dentist.
So much more than a Dentist
I originally met Dr. Collins four years ago when I produced a video for his social organization, Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity Beta Upsilon chapter. This national organization is a predominantly African American professional fraternity whose members include some of the most successful and influential African American businessmen, educators, politicians, and/or civil leaders in the country. Dr. Collins was one of the founding members of the San Francisco chapter, and when I originally interviewed him for that video, I was told he was a retired dentist. It wasn’t until three years later when he was being honored and we were commissioned to do a video about his life that I realized he was so much more.
Besides being the first board certified African America oral pathologist in the world, he dabbled in a few other ventures:
- Board of trustees for the National Urban League, including personal advisers to Whitney Young and Vernon Jordan.
- Head of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishing’s San Francisco Division
- Founder of what is now “Lifehouse” an organization that helps children in the Bay Area with developmental disabilities.
- Professor of dentistry at the University of San Francisco.
- Board member of Paine College
- And much, much more.
Leaving His Legacy
Dr. Collins passed away at the age of 91 on September 13 of this year. Last Saturday, a month later, was his memorial service. In addition to a lovely reading by his grand children and great grand children, the speakers at the service included Vernon Jordan, Michael Drake, M.D., (Chancellor of UC Irvine), as well as the honorable Willie Brown. As I said, he was so much more than just a dentist
Below is the memorial video we played that just scratches the surface of the incredible life he led. The opening to the video is an excerpt of the video we originally produced back in 2003 about the fraternity. The scene is a comical interaction between Dr. Collins and his good friend Joseph B. Williams, another “giant” figure in the world of Bay Area civil rights.
